


A Rose By Any Other Name

by EveryEverAfter



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Death, F/M, the kids are just briefly mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-25
Updated: 2016-05-25
Packaged: 2018-06-10 14:04:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6960061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EveryEverAfter/pseuds/EveryEverAfter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes he finds himself still dreaming of green hair getting tangled in his fingers, of whispered words against his neck in the middle of the night, and the feel of her nails scratching down his back. It doesn't matter. It can't. It was just a mistake at the beginning of his career.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Rose By Any Other Name

**Author's Note:**

> This leans more toward the zexal manga. The death mentioned is not any of the characters tagged.

Mr. Mizuki is a dying, rich man. An ideal next victim for him.

It's not that hard to win his trust either, a few good deeds and kind words and the poor sick man is welcoming Heartland into his house.

"You're a great help son." Son. The old fool falls right into his trap but Heartland merely smiles and gently waves off the man's praise.

"It's no problem really." He keeps his tone light and happy.

Mr. Mizuki smiles at him like he's family and really all it does is make him want to laugh. How easy it is to play a role for people, how easy people fall for his act.

"It's nice to have help." He loses his breath for a moment and has a coughing fit before lying back in his chair and sighing tiredly. "I'm always afraid my daughter will worry herself sick over me." The man grins at him like they're old friends and Heartland is a true gift to the world.

Like always the old man sends him away with a smile and a 'come back tomorrow.'

Never suspecting a thing.

Yes Mr. Mizuki is a perfect prey for him.

His daughter… she is a different story.

The young Ms. Mizuki is very stubborn and constant in her care for her father. Despite being in college for a degree in something that he has no interest in remembering, she also finds plenty of time to see her father and keep a closer eye on him than Heartland is comfortable with.

"My father always speaks fondly of you." Her tone is light but her eyes are burning him; damning him like she knows his games.

She always looks at him with distrust, like she knows he's a serpent and she's afraid to leave her helpless father in his grasp. Clever minx.

Heartland just smiles as he places a kiss on her hand and escorts her out the mansion.

When he forms a habit of constantly watching her leave, he finally realizes he has a problem.

.

.

Two months into his ploy and he decides he hates Ms. Mizuki.

He hates her. He wants to pull her hair out strand by strand and at the same time he wants to hear her scream his name again and again until she submits to him.

The woman plays a dangerous game with him, always trying to figure him out and always dancing away when the situation gets too heated.

"Do you not trust me Ms. Mizuki? I only have your father's best interest at heart."

.

.

The green haired girl gives him little attention once her poor father starts worsening.

It's like a switch goes off the moment the bad news hits her. For the first time Heartland sees her cry and fall apart. Like a good friend he calms her down, tells her everything will be fine, they have the best doctors after all.

Ms. Mizuki grows attached to him, like he's her shield against the merciless weight of her father's illness. It's just the twist he's been waiting for.

So he courts the woman. He's perfected his acting skills through the years and he uses them to their full potential against the young woman. He plays a sweet, kind, and attentive lover. Someone she could spend her life with if she so chose to.

A man she felt she could trust.

It takes barely any action for her to fall right into his web next to her dying father.

She's young and attractive and a spitfire rolled in one.

So he sleeps with her. But he never actually stays with her.

Because he does not love. He has no time for such a thing, his goals and priorities are for him and him alone.

Though the idea is interesting. Unbeknownst to Mr. Mizuki he will soon face a tragic death, and that will leave his funds to his sole relative.

He considers the idea of her far more often than he likes. (That is to say it boils in his blood and he wants to gnash his teeth at how ridiculous the idea even is.)

Ms. Mizuki is attractive, yes, with long green hair and golden eyes that always seem to catch his attention and that smile she has right before they part that has a feeling strangling in his throat.

He must admit he is attracted to her. But he does not love her.

The arrangement is pleasurable and is all that will happen. He sleeps with her while poor old Mr. Mizuki slowly looses touch with her and he has the once indignant little girl- because that's what she is once her defiance is pulled away- wrapped around his finger.

His scheme falls into perfect order as he watches Mr. Mizuki lose his life force.

Soon he'll be gone and with even more money than his previous client provided him.

Then one day toward the end of her father's life young Ms. Mizuki gets pregnant.

She looks frightened and he holds her; slips into his perfect façade and consoles her. He tells her he loves her, makes promises of their future- a future they'll never have and for once he may feel a pinch of something wrong nagging at his mind.

He leaves two days after they bury the old man, taking absolutely everything the man had.

He refuses to feel guilt over it. He's never had commitments, always moving around, always evading someone somewhere. But… he's never had a woman with sparkling eyes and a will to shake him to his core.

And he never will again.

Ms. Mizuki is smart, she'll find a way to make it and he'll stop thinking about her and her spunk soon.

.

.

And he doesn't think about it.

Or so he tells himself.

Sometimes he finds himself still dreaming of green hair getting tangled in his fingers, of whispered words against his neck in the middle of the night, and the feel of her nails scratching down his back.

It doesn't matter. It can't. It was just a mistake at the beginning of his career.

He is who he is. He will always look out for himself first.

Though every now and then when he feels the aching loneliness and can't sleep, he does think about her.

How she took the news when she found out he was never coming back.

How the brat they have looks.

He dreams of a crying baby and a woman he once may be able to have loved with tears staining her face.

Sometimes he wishes he could see the kid, see what a combination of them even looked like and lived like. A bitter laugh leaves his lips and he rolls back over in bed.

.

.

It takes maybe thirteen years later for him to actually get his wish- though not a wish at all is it?

Yuma Tsukumo has managed to become a pest. A pest that needed to be dealt with quickly.

The reports on the boy flash across the screen in front of him and Heartland reads through quickly and only to important details.

Then he has to bite back a curse as he reads one of Yuma Tsukumo's friend's name.

Kotori Mizuki.

It's a slap to the face.

Mizuki.

The girl has green hair and hazel eyes that almost look exactly like the ones that haunt him when he's alone.

She looks just like her mother.

Mr. Heartland's heart beats painfully in his chest and he can't stop looking at the girl. He can't stop seeing the resemblance between her and her mother; between her and him.

He slams his fist into the unyielding wall.

"This changes nothing." His words are vicious and hissed like an animal as he glares at the image in front of him.

.  
.

And nothing changed at all.


End file.
